Battle of the department of Mysteries
by ulfark
Summary: A one shot fight scene at the department of Mysteries. Harry is not the boy who lived and actually has some skills because dumbledore isnt sabotaging him every step of the way. something i wrote a long time ago that's a dead end that i thought i'd share.


**Battle of the Department of mysteries**

This is a scene I wrote for a HP fic I think I'll never finish. It was a wrong boy who lived fic following the typical mould with how I wanted the battle at the ministry to play out. Less running like scared little rabbits and more trap setting and fighting.

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"Give us the prophecy and we'll let you live." sneered Malfoy confidently

Harry quickly used legilimency to reach into his groups minds and said " Everyone calm down I'm going to stall them for as long as possible"

"Sure no problem , there are just a few things I want to ask madam Black over there first if you don't mind. " Harry said trying to sound as pleasantly as possible

Intrigued Bellatrix replied" Little Harrikens wants to talk with the adults " in a baby voice

"Well yes there were a few things I don't quite understand that I want to ask you, as you are the highest ranking lieutenant in the Dark lord's army" Bella was pleased by this praise even considering its source and placated her for now.

Harry continued " As you probably know Mr crouch broke his son out of Azkaban and replaced him with his poly juiced wife. What I don't understand is why did Crouch a disgraced ministry worker at the time manage that right after the Dark lords fall. But Malfoy could never be bothered to imperius and polyjuice some muggles or muggleborn to break you guys out."

This touched a nerve with the Azkaban death eaters. They hadn't thought of that and the fact that they could have been free years ago. If one of the sixteen who had escaped Azkaban had the loyalty and brains they claimed to have .They all started glaring at the imperius defence freed ones.

Harry legilimenced to his friends" I'm gonna try to make them turn on each other say nothing to distract them. "

His friends understood and kept their mouths shut while still thinking of ways to escape.

Malfoy quickly replied " It was hard enough to escape Azkaban in those days. We had to appear to be unwilling volunteers. If we went to Azkaban to reminisce about the glory days with old friends. We would have been thrown in there with you." trying to appeal to the rational side of his fellow death eaters. He knew they were certifiably insane by now and he shouldn't really expect logic to have any hold over them but it still worked better than appeals on the basis of friendship and mercy. That would just earn him a guilty sentence and a long torture session unless he could convince the Dark lord who was even more irrational nowadays.

This somewhat satisfied them for now although there would be hell to pay later on.

Harry seeing a opening kept pushing " You had the ear of the minister for years Malfoy. You could have done so at anytime. You just had to polyjuice the replacement as your wife when you visited.

Also the Dark lord entrusted you with a enchanted object of great value that you threw away carelessly."

Malfoy tried to nip this in the bud before the death eaters got into a frenzy " The Dark lord knows this and has punished me severely for that Potter" trying to allay any more hate directed towards himself

'' I see, but were you ever told it was the secret to his immortality? '' asked Harry

This shocked the death eaters, they could not believe what Malfoy had done even unknowingly and still live. Though his recent fall from favor now made all the more sense.

" You see that object could have resurrected him in just one year of exposed contact to a human sacrifice. And you allowed it to be destroyed rather effortlessly by placing it right under Dumbledore's nose.""

The death eaters from Azkaban were seeing red by now and were only refraining from torturing and killing Malfoy because their lord had put him in charge. This position meant their lord still had some use for him or was testing him.

''I see'' said Bellatrix " clearly the Dark lord's trust was severely misplaced. If only he saw fit to reward little Bella with such an honor''

Harry capitalized on this '' indeed you would have, but the Dark lord has trouble trusting his followers because of all the untrustworthy incompetent idiots that would turn their backs on him when the wind changes direction. They all professed to be most loyal and by doing so they fraudulently claimed the spot of the true loyal one the feared Bellatrix Black."

The other death eaters started looking a bit uncomfortable now

Harry smoothly twisted his words in his favor " If they did not constantly lie to the Dark lord he would have trusted you and he would have been back in just a few months and you would be rewarded for your loyalty beyond your dreams. Sadly they took that away from you."

At this Bellatrix snapped, she brandished her wand and tried to crucio Malfoy and said with a mad cackle" You know potter is right, I really should kill you here and now. "

Malfoy replied " Your mad, the boy is manipulating you. We are still most loyal to the Dark lord"

" You seek to lie your way out of this?" Bellatrix laughed "Well it is your specialty after all"

" Indeed I wonder how much information he already gave the ministry or plans to, to save his skin this time. That man always has an exit strategy to make sure nothing ties back to him" this came from the middle of the death eaters, but no one said it. Harry had used a spell to create a disembodied voice coming from there while sounding slightly garbled due to a mask.

This drove Bella into a frenzy as she started to duel Malfoy while the others looked on. With the death eaters finally suitably distracted. Harry legilimenced " Okay now quietly walk away so they don't notice us. If were lucky we might get halfway across the hall before they notice we're gone."

However his brother Daniel did not listen and broke out into a dead run. Why did he pretend to be friends again? Oh yeah convenience, free food and a shield against the terror twins.

Bellatrix and Malfoy kept fighting for a bit longer but the other death eaters were hot on their heels. Harry ran after his friends and silently cursed the day Daniel was born. Luckily he was somewhat prepared. He dropped the Peruvian Darkness powder to cover their tactical retreat.

Seeing the death eaters charge headfirst into the Darkness after them, Harry smiled. He started conjuring and transfiguring small simple soldiers with a sword and gave them a simple search and destroy command. The animation charm would respond to any sound in the vicinity and start attacking it.

In this case as they were running away from it they would draw only a few because the approaching death eaters would run right in the middle of them and attract his pursuers away from him. This effectively surrounded them so Harry had no problems with his own creations trying to kill him because he wasn't going to stop running long enough for them to hack his legs off.

The mini soldiers only reached up to ones knees because big conjurations en masse were really tiring and not very useful right now. The death eaters were blind and were going to be attacked on all sides. But most importantly they were going to send retaliation spells flying in all directions and due to their shortness his soldiers would not get hit. His soldiers would have plenty of opportunities to cut them down, starting with their ankles and knees followed by their groin and then their torso or arms and only then cut of their head. he wasn't sure about that last one it depended If it still made noise at that point.

He hadn't given a kill command, just a general attack anything that makes a sound. So probably they were going to hack them to pieces until they died. This uncertainty was a big problem with simple commands, the technicalities they created could be disastrous. When one made a serious piece of animation like a snitch, they had to give hundreds of lines of commands and have them checked. If one did not have ones commands checked by a lawyer type. One could easily give commands that were meant to do one thing but did another thing entirely.

Magic in general responded easily to just general thoughts and feelings and filled in the blanks. It wasn't very details oriented but animation was different as it could work fine with simple commands but then they were prone to mistakes and you would get blamed for it. It was another reason to have ones commands read by a lawyer type.

To prevent a crippling lawsuit, it was one of the primary reasons why animated statues and whatnot were not used often as guards. They were almost as likely to kill unintended targets as intended ones. It was real proof that Flitwick was a charms master by his brilliant display in that chess game animation back in first year.

As he was running away and the first confused screams of death eaters started reaching him. Harry decides to up the ante and protect his rear by using avis repeatedly. He sent a large flock of animated birds to annoy and intercept any curses headed their way. He also placed a geminio spell on the last flock. That particular flock would duplicated itself and keep them busy. It really was too bad he did not think of using it on his little soldiers. But he could help them a little more even from this distance. He fired some noisemaking spells randomly towards his back. This noise coming from all directions would hopefully further disorganize and disorient the death eaters.

It was really effective and would have been enough to do in most death eaters but sadly Bellatrix had decided to postpone her duel with Malfoy. She quickly summoned all the surrounded death eaters to herself. And then to get rid of the ambush rather than undo every single spell one by one. She just got rid of it all at once by unleashing a wave of Fiendfyre.

Harry watched how his carefully constructed trap was dismantled with raw power. Everything was consumed by the cursed flames, the Peruvian Darkness powder the soldiers and birds all at once.

Though annoyed he couldn't ake them all out. He had wounded several of them and he got a big head start out of it. Bellatrix was already putting out her Fiendfyre so she could chase them herself. But that was going to take some time for a Fiendfyre cast that big and one that actually had some substance to burn. All the death eaters were effectively cut off for now.

Harry yelled" It's going to take some time for Bella to put that fire out. We need to get to the exit now before they can catch up"

''We would love to Harry but that spinning room is not going to make it easy to leave. " said Neville

" Just keep trying, I'll try to hold them off while you search for the door. "'said Harry

They entered the spinning room and quickly chose a door. While Harry quickly conjured and animated a few spiders and told them to hang on the ceiling and drop down and attack everyone wearing a skull mask.

Once done setting the trap he followed his friends out the door. And as soon as the door closed behind him. He used aguamenti to douse the floor in water and then a glacius charm to freeze it. Hopefully some death eater would storm in and fall on his head. It was wishful thinking but hey you gotta stay positive in times like this.

They could hear cries of frustrations as they kept on running but they kept getting closer so they knew they were still far from in the clear.

" Maybe we should split up?" asked Daniel " You can lead them off while we search the rooms and then you can follow us "

" Daniel you pathetic excuse for a wizard! We are not leaving Harry to die alone. You did not have to come you know. In fact if it wasn't for you we wouldn't even be in this mess" Hermione admonished scathingly

They burst through another door and there was plenty or random furniture around.

Harry yelled " Shut up and start blasting the furniture. I need it to create more decoys and traps"

They kept on running and blasting randomly

Harry quickly picked a carpet of the floor and placed it against the door with a epoximise. Which fused it together on a molecular level. Followed up by a few locking spells for extra insurance. But those would be quickly undone, that carpet would force them to break the door down though.

He kept running through the debris and used the draconifors spell to transform it all into a sea of small dragons. Followed up by the engorgio charm and then finally the hardening charm to strengthen them a bit but not enough to reduce mobility. This time he did not forget the geminio spell and placed it on a few dragons and then commanded them to attack each other and skull mask wearers. This created plenty of extra dragons and chaos. He then exited the room with everyone else.

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Malfoy was not having a good day. He was already on slippery ground with the Dark lord and failure on this mission could endanger him and his family. And then that crazy bitch Bellatrix had to mess it up by listening to Potter of all people. Sadly Potter had some good points that were hard to dismiss because he really couldn't have been bothered if there was no Dark lord.

The Malfoy's bowed to no one but the Dark lord made a very convincing case for himself. The fact that Malfoys prized cunning and survival higher than foolish loyalty was something he was proud of. No Malfoy should ever display such Gryffindorish traits. Sadly he was yet again surrounded by idiots because the Dark lord trusted no one with half a brain. The only reason he and Bella were still alive was because he was too cowardly and she was too crazy and devoted to ever betray him. His significant influence at the ministry and huge coffers of gold also helped smooth things over with Voldemort.

It was funny how the economy worked for a Dark lord as opposed to a normal wizard. Some things were cheaper because they would not dare overcharge or charge at all. And others were significantly more expensive because they were less afraid and had more protection and needed more money to sell to someone they disliked. The Dark lord could kill anyone who overcharged but that would be a huge waste of time, a lot of risk and not many people would be left to sell things. So it was easier to just pony up and have someone else pay for you. So much for the all-mighty Dark lord, getting ripped off by filthy peasants and coming to me like a spoilt child who wants a new toy.

Malfoy had to remember to take out these thoughts with a pensieve after this mission or he would get crucioed or killed later.

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Bellatrix had finally put out the cursed fire and the other death eaters had gone ahead while she finished. They had split up into pairs to find them before they got to the exit. Normally she would agree and think two death eaters should be more than enough for a couple of kids. But she was quite impressed with the number of charms and transfigurations that Potter brat pulled off in just a few minutes. She was sure more traps would be waiting for them in the other rooms.

The problem with a transfigurist in a duel was that they could use everything as a shield and weapon. That made it difficult to get a direct hit with a spell and a attack could come from every direction. The problem with one who could animate them in a blink of an eye too, was that they got stronger the longer the duel went on. If they did not finish Potter off soon he would keep conjuring and animating till there was a large army of various creatures waiting to ambush them at every step.

She could keep conjuring Fiendfyre to deal with them but then it would become a war of attrition. Her raw magical power against his mental strength and magical power. Although it was tiring to animate so many things but using Fiendfyre to destroy them all over a large space and then putting it out again was worse. This meant that Potter would have the advantage as loath as she was to admit it.

She did not fancy herself getting burned alive because her own spell took more magical power than she could spare. It was basically overkill but destroying everything separately would be a war of attrition too. But then how fast they could destroy versus him creating. Ignoring them was also not an option because they would built up and overwhelm them in time.

She followed into the spinning room and found some blood on the floor and the remains of some spiders. And Bella thought " Yeah we're screwed, we are stuck in a maze with a wizard who will only get stronger until we find him. This was one of the reasons why her lord preferred to keep his duels with Dumbledore short despite having the raw magical power advantage. " She quickly opened a door and hoped for the best.

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Malfoy meanwhile was cursing Potters existence even more as he was one off the first through the door and saw Mulciber get attacked by spiders. They dropped down out of nowhere and bit him viciously. Malfoy and the others quickly banished and destroyed the spiders but Mulciber was probably poisoned now. Finding Potter and that prophecy became more time sensitive because Mulciber was likely to die without an antidote soon. However leaving now would guarantee his death so they ploughed on. He ran Through endless corridors , not knowing were the bloody kids had gone and whether or not there was another trap just around the corner, It was maddening.

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Harry had set up several more traps before he ran into Dolohov and Mcnair. Most notable of which was throwing a potion against the wall that would evaporate with air contact. Its vapors would be poisonous and would kill anybody who did not get out of the small room before they collapsed because prolonged exposure would ensure death and brief exposure would cause nausea and numbness and violent coughing.

He also had set up an age line that would repel anyone older than twenty which meant every death eater would be repelled but he and his friend had free passage. He would have created several of them if it did not take so long to create one.

Harry yelled " you guys take Mcnair I'll deal with Dolohov myself"

Daniel indignantly yelled that he could do so as well and to stop hogging the spotlight.

Harry tuned him out and cast a oleum eructu at them both. Which caused a jet of oil to erupt from his wand. This caused the death eaters to lose their balance on the slippery floor but they duelled onwards regardless and were about to vanish it with a strong scourgify when Harry cast his next spell a simple incendio.

Due to the fact that they were covered in oil, they were burned badly and had trouble putting it out with a aguamenti because oil did not dissolve in water. And clearly wizards didn't know anything about muggle science and didn't know that you didn't put out a oil fire with water. A long story short they were swallowed into a huge inferno which gave them third degree burns. They solved this problem by quickly using a flame freezing charm. They were still on fire and heavily burned but no longer getting burned which was the important part.

They both screamed that he would suffer for that. They both started to incant the killing curse and aimed it at Harry and his friends. Harry quickly casted " globifors " which poured non bursting bubbles out of his wand. He send them to intercept the killing curses between himself and his friends. The colorful bubbles were usually used for decorative purposes and it showed. When they were hit by the killing curse they exploded in to a brilliant display of colors and light.

Harry couldn't resist commenting on the light show and how they should make a career out of it Dolohov was now seriously mad and used his signature curse " imprecari" a diagonal purple flame came at them.

Harry knew he would have trouble creating a magical shield strong enough to block it. Normally he would have preferred to just dodge it but with his friends around he couldn't. He quickly casted " lapidosus" which created a cloud of stones which were hurled at Dolohov but his curse cut straight through his physical obstacle. Harry needed to add another layer to it and seeing the curse was a purple flame he went for its natural enemy. He casted " largus watri " which created a large wave of water. He poured a lot of magic into this spell to overwhelm Dolohov. They clashed and the water started to bubble and steam started to form but eventually the flame curse sputtered out and hot waves crashed down on the death eaters. Harry went to finish it and casted " magna tonitrus " which fired white hot lightning at the death eaters who were just coming out of the water. It had just enough power to stun but because they were completely drenched in water they could not only not dodge it, but it was lethal as well. This was because the normal conductivity of their skin got increased by the water.

The death eaters died screaming as they got electrocuted.

His friends were momentarily shaken by the fact that Harry had just killed someone. But Harry snapped them out of it. Harry yelled " Come on we got no time! We need to get outta here"

The others meekly nodded and followed him while thinking a bit about how useless they were in that last duel. Although they all duelled Mcnair at the same time he mostly ignored them and focused his attention on Harry. And in the end they both were defeated by Harry singlehandedly because they did not land a spell on Mcnair even though he was distracted.

They went through another door and Harry casted " perplectus " behind them sealing of that door with a nigh impenetrable spider web. Hopefull some death eaters would get stuck in them.

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Bellatrix meanwhile was foaming at the mouth in rage and because she inhaled that blasted poison whatever it was. It wasn't enough to kill her it seemed, because she got out fast enough. Crabbe however like the idiot that he was, charged on through and nearly made it to the other side of the room before he collapsed and started convulsing a few seconds later. Bellatrix was not planning on risking her life to save his worthless ass but the Dark lord needed his followers. Even worthless ones because he was shorthanded at the moment. So she cast a silent summoning charm as she was not prepared to open her mouth and breathe in more poison.

She got Crabbe out and quickly closed the door again and paused to catch her breath and cast some healing charms on herself and that moron Crabbe.

Bellatrix was expecting animated statues to attack her, but potions too! That made this even more difficult. She could deal with pesky creatures easily enough and airborne toxins were easily negated with a bubblehead charm. But this meant that the brat had more tricks up his sleeve. Normally one had to proceed cautiously when entering a trapped anything let alone a maze. But this damn kid was making these traps as he went along. If he actually got some time to focus. He could really prepare some nasty surprises for them.

The worst part was he had the bloody prophecy which could not be destroyed and the Dark lord wanted to kill him himself. Which made attacking potter all the more difficult. It was one thing to kill someone, all you needed was one lucky hit and you could kill them. But capturing required a quite bit more skill than your opponent. And right now Bellatrix wasn't entirely sure if she could beat him. With a few healing potions and a one on one duel where he did not run away, sure no problem. But in this goddamn maze it was his turf. He was going to slowly whittle them down to nothing and then swoop in and finish them off or let the aurors capture them.

Now that she thought of it that was also a problem. They had tampered with the wards to ignore any and all spell casting inside the department of mysteries. But if they got to another level or even the atrium it would send of warnings bells to the entire ministry. Bellatrix was good and she knew it but she was not prepared to duel the entire ministry. Even her master was not capable of doing that . The pathetic weaklings would swarm around and attack on all sides. Even the greatest of beasts could be brought down by ants, if there were enough of them.

Crabbe seemed to be out of it despite the enervate she casted on him. It appeared that potion could be quite lethal. She sighed she was going to have to leave him here and find another way around. Hopefully she would get lucky and run right into Potter. She quickly dispelled the poisonous fumes in case some other death eater ran into them. But wasn't going to test whether she got all of it. Testing whether or not a room still had toxic gas inside was a job for a house elf not for a member of the most ancient and noble house of Black.

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Harry was getting winded " Guys I'm getting tired lets rest for a few minutes while we get our bearings"

Daniel protested " Hmph if you're too weak to keep up you should have stayed at Hogwarts Harry. We would have defeated these death eaters by now if you didn't insist on running all the time. "

Apparently Daniel was bolstered with false confidence after seeing several death eaters fall without them even getting hurt but he totally forgot that he had no part in that, that selective memory of his was truly incredible.

Harry sighed. He was really starting to wonder why he did not curse Daniel and leave him to the death eaters tender mercies. Maybe transfigure him into a girl so they would probably rape him before torturing and killing him. It would make for a good insult the next time he saw the death eaters. But that would probably get thrown back in his face.

He needed his brother to die far away from him and in no way through his fault. It seemed easy enough with how stupid and arrogant he was but he had too many people looking out for him.

It almost made Harry want to give the death eaters some anonymous tips on how to kill him when his minders weren't around. But that would undoubtedly backfire by ending in someone's death he actually liked and him getting away. The world was cruel like that, it enjoyed throwing a monkey wrench into carefully planned assassination plots way too much. Much to his and voldemorts displeasure.

If he hadn't come with and fought this battle his brother would be dead to both his and voldemorts joy but sadly so would his friends so he had little choice in the matter. Maybe it was a good thing he and voldemort could never find common ground due to his friends. because voldemort liked to surround himself with idiots way too much for his liking.

The paranoid bastard would also probably backstab him by informing the ministry or his moronic followers would do it on their own. In no time flat voldemort would get threatened and try to kill Harry because that guy seriously did not like competition, so they would be back where they started. Although his dead brother may be worth some interesting tension filled moments with voldemort. it wasn't worth the entire wizarding world being after his blood. He still wanted that white picket fenced house, a nice dog, a few dozen wives and a couple of children. You know every guy's dream without reality pressing down on it.

Harry was snapped out of his tangent when another death eater entered the room . Luckily for Harry he hadn't seen him and his friends yet. Harry whispered "Sumendum tantibus" the colorless spell flew towards the death eater and hit him in the chest.

After a while he started screaming his throat hoarse. He had cast a powerful curse that made him relive his worst nightmare like he was actually there again and feeling every bit of it. By the sound of it, it was probably a torture session with voldemort or Bella.

It had different effects on everybody ,some would get no worse than getting yelled at or a broken bone or losing a loved one at worst. But death eaters were different, they all got tortured for their failures and that would definitely be their worst memory. Voldemort would make sure of it. So it was a roundabout way of casting the cruciatus curse without actually casting it.

It was a fun get out of jail free card because it would be difficult to prove in a court trial he did it on purpose without veritaserum and he could beat that. Only a magical oath was enough to prove it one way or another but he wasn't going to do that. He would say that every wizard or witch would want to hurt those death eaters and at the same time didn't. so casting an magical oath was equal to losing one's magic so that could probably be avoided. He doubted they would care in the first place though.

Harry had to stop gloating about his legal crucio and focus on the other death eater who was busy cursing his friends. The other death eater hadn't seen his spell but had found his friends when they stuck their heads out to look, why the death eater was screaming his head off. And naturally the death eater blamed them. So he wasted no time with pleasantries before he got the same faith. Harry cut of his curse and casted a quick stupefy at the death eater. He hoped it would catch him of guard, it didn't so he was locked in yet another duel. He quickly send another stupefy this time to the downed death eater before he could get back and join the fight.

This gave plenty of time for the other death eater to cast his killing curse . Harry was put on the defensive because he couldn't take risks with a killing curse coming at him.

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Meanwhile Malfoy was throwing blasting curses around like candy. He was surrounded by dragons who would love to gouge his throat out. They were really dangerous too, because some were strong enough to survive indirect contact with a blasting curse and had to be hit directly. But other dragons would intercept them then and they kept on multiplying. Another problem was them flying overhead and swooping down out of nowhere some even attempted near vertical suicide crashes to catch them of guard. Their shields were strong enough to repel them so far but the shields were not designed to take much punishment from above. Most shields focused on protecting spells coming from the front. There were a couple full body shields but they consumed magic like crazy. And therefore they went out of style centuries ago. So

Malfoy was left with coordinating his shield with the other four death eaters and his quick reflexes to put his shield in place fast enough to block and still fire another blasting curse.

He would have already ordered his men to retreat. If it wasn't for the fact that this pestilence would only get worse and cut off all escape soon enough. He recognized the geminio charm when he saw it but the fact that they attacked each other to continuously activate it, was devilishly smart. Especially considering that their numbers were increasing faster by the minute.

He was running out of time and room to stand. Soon he would be overwhelmed and closing the doors and letting the ministry deal with it seemed really appealing. Sadly the other door was open and they had already spread in the other rooms, most likely. And the fact that Potter was hiding somewhere in here could also not be ignored.

It was a strong defense Malfoy could freely admit that. Although the animation charms were a bit simplistic , but that was understandable given the lack of time and sheer number of dragons he created before the geminio spell.

He could only trace a couple dozen originals with a spell. Sadly those were the extra tough ones and protected by the others. If he could only destroy those originals then the rest would stop existing as well. He decided that the only way out of here was with Fiendfyre. Bellatrix already proved it to be effective on stopping these animations although their numbers and space apart were in a different class than those gnomish soldiers. That Potter brat had more time in here and he was less skilled with Fiendfyre than bellatrix.

It was a gamble but one he had to take. He just had to aim it at the originals and he might live through this. He quickly explained his plan to his men and cast a swath of Fiendfyre and hoped for the best.

The dragons were being hunted and devoured by fire dragons, it seemed the semi sentient flames had a sense of humor. Malfoy kept his flame as small as possible because he could never bring it back under control once it grew beyond a certain size. But sadly the dragons were not keen on jumping into the fire willingly. So he had to manoeuvre it towards them which it did gladly but also put out its tracks which it resisted fiercely. His men were helping by summoning and banishing the dragons towards his flame. It was a race against time now, he could only hold the Fiendfyre for so long. if he failed to destroy all of the originals. They would all die here most likely ripped to shreds and unrecognizable to all.

Malfoy was also seriously contemplating on changing his son's first name after this. He wasn't sure he could ever call him by his first name again without grimacing.

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Harry was fed up with dueling with this particular death eater. It wasn't because he was good or bad or particularly offensive. He was mostly silent and rather good at dodging. No the reason he was annoyed was, because he was unimaginative. The bloody death eater stuck almost exclusively to the unforgivables.

He recognized that they were powerful spells and their ability to pass through any shield and end any duel if hit was indisputable. But for crying out loud some variation would be nice, if it wasn't for the fact that he would be dead if he relaxed for a second. He would start yawning and taunting his opponent. But he wasn't about to do something that stupid not yet anyhow. So he cast another ancient curse he dug up. Harry yelled "Decepisset vites'' right at the death eaters feet. The death eater figured Harry was going for the edges of his shield and calmly back stepped. But Harry could not be bothered with actually hitting him so long as he got close. The point of impact suddenly erupted with hundreds of vines sprouting out of it. The death eater was startled by it and reacted a bit to slow in running away. Not that it would have made much difference, as the vines quickly expanded and ensnared him.

This was a lot better, rather than trading spells back and forth and hope one hits. You should just cast one on your surroundings and attack him from all sides. It was such an creative dueling style, Harry loved it, especially when using his ensnaring vines spell. it was most effective on rich soil, there he could create an entire forest of sharp vines but here in a stone corridor. He was limited to a overgrown bush. It was enough to entrap the death eater though and now he could take his time figuring out what to do with him. He could just leave him but his friends could cut him down.

In that regard this spell was no different than a stupefy only how long it took to free someone differed. He could create some bodily harm to put him out of the fight permanently. Yeah that was probably best, but he had to be careful he didn't die of blood loss or whatever. So he casted a de-boning spell on his wand arm. It took several painful hours and a potion of skele grow to re-grow bones and he doubted the death eaters had any with them. Regardless he couldn't use his wand so he couldn't join the fight again and was safe from accidentally dying.

But to be on the safe side of things he also cast them on his other limbs. He only refrained from the chest and head because it would kill him . Humans may be sacks of flesh but they had to keep their contents carefully organized if organs starting rolling around freely or the brain sagged out of place it would cause major problems.

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Bellatrix had recovered somewhat and was making her way through the doors again she only encountered a few feeble attempts to stop her so far. A conjured bull and snake, one to draw her attention while the other struck out of nowhere. It was a good application of the hammer and the anvil. It was classic but failed because she was used to hearing snakes . She was always straining to find out where Nagini was these days. As soon as she heard that snake slithering she knew where it was. But it would have worked on any non death eater she imagined. She would mention it to the Dark lord as a suggestion he could use. if he wouldn't crucio her on the spot for the implied insult that his dueling was inferior to the Potter brat.

Bellatrix got a bit of extra leeway with her lord because of how devoted she was. Now yes she was loyal, but no one was really that servile and still be a self-respecting witch or wizard with a decent amount of power. Even that pathetic scum Wormtail was less servile. But Bella had plenty of reason to always respond to the slightest insult to the Dark lord, in the presence of death eaters especially.

She knew the Dark lord constantly read their minds. It was the reason why they always had to bow and wait to be given leave to speak and he would always only barely listen before making his decision. He would read your mind to find out what happened and then listen to you to see if you tried to lie or cover anything up. He didn't come out and tell everyone he was reading their minds constantly. He preferred them to think he could only read their minds completely with the incantation and a wand. Sure he was known as a powerful legillimencer but only by the inner circle and older death eaters. New recruits weren't told, it was far too useful to find out the truth.

Bellatrix only found out because she was a second generation death eater because of her great and varied skills. As such she immediately decided like the slytherin she was to always act in a way that would manipulate the Dark lord in her favor. If that meant acting slightly crazy and devoted even when he wasn't there but could possibly read it in someone's mind then sure why not. The reason the professions of loyalty right before a crucio session rang so hollow and were utterly worthless. Was exactly that they only did it right before being tortured for their failures. Bella did it without being prompted and so got spared torture sessions. It was just a good policy to have for any aspiring death eater who wanted to stay sane enough to last until the end of the war.

Sadly she may have lost some of her sanity regardless in Azkaban because she couldn't use the imperius defense. Mainly because she could throw it off and the other death eaters all knew it. They had tried to have their way with her once by using it. They found out the painful way that they weren't worthy enough to kiss her feet. No the only one she would ever permit to touch her was the Dark lord, not even her husband had done so. It was an arranged loveless marriage to begin with anyhow. But unfortunately the Dark lord wasn't interested in keeping a relationship that didn't offer him something. And because she had already sworn loyalty she didn't have anything to offer, it was as simple as that.

But nowadays she wasn't even to sure if she still wanted to. The Dark lord was a handsome man when she grew up, the epitome of power and charisma, of how the purebloods should be. But nowadays he was deformed, and constantly thwarted by Potter and Dumbledore. It was really depressing to think she might have chosen wrong and only got tortured half her life in either Azkaban or with the Dark lord for nothing.

So she had to make sure he came to power, if that brat and old man defeated him there was no place left for her. She knew that and would have to act accordingly, either fight to the death or a life of luxury, there was no middle ground. She was never going back to Azkaban.

Bellatrix came across some burned, drenched and electrocuted death eaters. " Gee it looks like Potter has trouble deciding how he's gonna kill us" Bellatrix said to herself.

She continued on and nearly stumbled into a spider web. She tried cutting her way through but only Dark cutting curses had an effect. She then tried some cursed fire other than Fiendfyre. It was still strong, though not as potent and uncontrollable. It burned it away easily enough, given a bit of time. But now she was getting fearful of losing Potter because he should have had enough time by now to reach the atrium.

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Malfoy was dead tired, it took all his magical power to extinguish the fiendfyre after it was done consuming the originals. He was lucky the geminio duplicates ceased to exist. because he couldn't possibly burn them all down. He was teetering on the verge of magical exhaustion as it was. Anymore spellcasting would mean he would fall unconscious. He was sure of it and so had to hope the other death eaters would have more luck than he. Or hopefully he just ran into the strongest trap and the others only got easy pickings. It would be annoying hearing their bragging that he nearly got done in by a kid when they had no trouble at all.

Because they would be loathed to pass up a chance to ridicule him behind his back right now. But the success of this mission was more important than teaching his subordinates some humility that could wait till later at his discretion.

He looked over at his men, the Lestrange brothers, Mulciber and Rookwood. They were all bruised and had several broken bones and had deep gashes all over their bodies. Those dragons really did a number on them. They didn't have much healing potions with them because they assumed. They wouldn't need them other then to patch up the Potter brat. So he wouldn't die without the Dark lords permission. Now that assumption was coming back to bite them in the ass along with the dragons. Malfoy was torn between taking a few minutes to rest and recuperate or press on before more traps were made.

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Harry had finished de-boning Jugson and Avery. Jugson was kind enough to let slip his name and Avery's while he was cursing Harry to the foulest pits of hell. He left him ensnared and Avery on the floor for anyone to find. Although it was impossible for them to rejoin the battle. It was entirely plausible for them to escape with a bit of aid from another death eater and then they would kill and rape some more. That was regrettable but his reputation was more important right now so he had to leave them alive when he could. So he just placed a tracking charm on them and hoped they could meet again soon.

Harry was confident he had taken out four death eaters so far and his traps should have at least hindered the others . So they should be easy pickings if he ran into them. Harry was getting tired though, so he preferred to hide for a bit and let his traps do their job before ploughing onwards but his friends were too anxious to escape. So he ran on along with them cursing them silently in his mind for their inexperience.

If they could only stay calm and enjoy this a bit or just pull their own weight he wouldn't even be bothered if they went their own separate paths. But no, he couldn't trust them like that. They were to incompetent by far despite what they may claim. At best they provided good covering fire and not much else in his opinion. At worst they were a horrible distraction who he had to protect and leave himself open to do so. His constant worries about his friends during the last duels also added onto his mental fatigue and not just his magical one. It was a good thing he was in good shape or he might have added stamina to that list as well to make the unholy trinity of dead tired and about to die.

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Nott meanwhile was getting plenty of rest just not how he envisioned it. He split up with Crabbe when he spotted the kids but the idiot didn't hear him so he pressed on regardless. He figured they would run into other death eaters soon enough. They were after all plenty of them walking about. he ran into a few insignificant traps nothing worth mentioning but when he destroyed another conjured creature in the middle of the room. He was suddenly surrounded by age lines. At first he scoffed at it, because he was more than old enough to pass through. But when he was thrown back he had to take a closer look. To his horror it was only passable by those younger than twenty which he wasn't by a long shot and it wouldn't have activated without him destroying the conjured creature in the first place. He was in this trap because he was too trigger happy and had no way of getting out. He didn't know much about these types of magic. He could only hope that Malfoy would stumble upon him and get him out. Though he was sure to get laughed at, it was still better than being left behind to get send back to Azkaban.

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Bellatrix was sure of it now, they were screwed. She had found Jugson and Avery. They were so thoroughly dismantled that anything short of killing them and turning them into inferi wouldn't put them back into the fight. Though they wouldn't appreciate it and would make for pretty weak inferi. So that meant that Potter had taken out Crabbe, Jugson, Avery, Dolohov and Mcnair. She didn't count herself because she could still put up a fight. but still she had confirmed almost half of their number was taken out. Even if they won and came back with the prophecy. They would still get a round of torture for their incompetence.

She silently cursed Malfoy's decision to split up, to find them faster. Well it worked for finding them but actually beating them in a duel seemed to be too much for just one pair of death eaters. She also had to wonder about other possible traps. Other than Crabbe all of these guys were done in by a spell but seeing how fast he made those little gnome soldiers in the Dark attack. She was sure he had made more. So most likely Malfoy and the others ran into them. Hopefully they weren't too banged up or they might just lose, even if they combined their strength.

Bellatrix re-entered the spinning room and was about to choose another random door when another door opened. It was the Potter brat and his friends. Bella was outnumbered but this was her only chance. So she had to make the most off it. But to be on the safe side she would taunt them a bit to stall for time so that Malfoy and the others could get here.

" Well if it isn't little baby Potter still haven't found the exit I see. I had expected you to be in the atrium by now. I suppose I over estimated your skills." Said Bella with more confidence than she felt.

"Yeah we got lost on the way, some death eaters tried to give us some directions but they didn't make any sense. I mean how do I take a left and then straight ahead in the foulest pits of hell. I saw some weird stuff down here but no hellfire so far" quipped Harry

"Heh you wouldn't be able to find your way out of here, even if you had a map Potter. "

"True enough,….. it is quite disorienting around here. … hey Bella where you get that dress anyway I like it."

" Of course, the mortal enemy of my lord is a cross-dresser" lamented Bella , misconstruing his words on purpose.

" Nah I was thinking about, what to give my girlfriend and that outfit combines sexy and cool quite nicely. "' complimented Harry

" I suppose I could give you some fashion advice but to have your mud blood appear somewhat presentable will take me hours of lecturing. " said Bella

At this his brother snapped "' What the bloody hell are you talking about, just stun the bitch and lets go!"

" What my idiotic brother fails to realize is that we are both stalling for time" said Harry

" It really is annoying to work with idiots isn't it. "commiserated Bella "Your brother is even more dim witted than Crabbe and that is saying something but I suppose he needs to be. Or else he wouldn't come off as an idiot compared to you. " said Bella

" Hey he isn't part of my group. he is just a tagalong. " defended Harry

Harry's brother was furious by now and unable to curse Harry for now, settled on Bellatrix. He fired a expeliarmus and stupefy at her.

Bellatrix easily blocked and dodged the attacks but kept her eyes on Harry who wasn't moving.

" I suppose the moron needs a lesson." said harry while he let his brother fight Bellatrix alone and then turned to his friends " Bellatrix is sick from that poison I set up and can't take us on alone and is waiting for back up"explained Harry

"All the more reason for us to fight her now" screamed his brother while he got pushed back by a relentless barrage from Bella.

" No you idiot! She knows I'm exhausted as well because of how many conjurations, animations and duels I fought. Meaning that if I go on the offensive and she just dodges my spells I will defeat myself with magical exhaustion. "

" your brother is right, the first one to attack could be the one to lose rather than win" agreed Bellatrix

" This whole battle is a war of attrition. Who can hold out longer, me or them. And right now it is them because Bella can keep on fighting despite how sick she is and you are no match for her." explained Harry

Hermion then piped up " Even so, we just need to fight her together while you rest " and joined the duel followed by the others.

Bella had some trouble with all of them at the same time and couldn't pay as much attention to Harry.

Harry meanwhile was worried not about Bellatrix but if another group of death eaters would emerge from those doors.

Bella had plenty of uncoordinated targets with a protector who wasn't going to help them unless it was lethal. So she just had to defeat them quickly or draw it out. She didn't need to decide because then the rest of the death eaters showed up.

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Malfoy had found Nott but didn't have the time to undo the age line properly. So he left him behind and said he'd be back soon. He told him Bellatrix was more capable of removing this age line than him and probably had more magic left.

They went through the door to the spinning room together. because they wouldn't be much of a fight separately. They entered to see Bellatrix duelling those little snot nosed brats and that Potter brat standing to the side calmly waiting.

"Well hello Malfoy glad you could join the party. " welcomed Harry

" I wouldn't miss it potter " drawled Malfoy

" Hmm you seem a bit worse for wear Malfoy, did you run into anything unpleasant on the way over" asked Harry knowingly

" A few minor distractions nothing unmanageable I assure you" said Malfoy

" Is that so, why are your men limping and groaning with every step? and do you seem about ready to keel over.? "

" enough talk Potter you either hand over the prophecy now or we will start killing your friends, your in no better shape than I am."

"True enough but my friends are better than your friends" taunted Harry and with that the battle between six death eater and Harry and his friends began again in earnest.

Due to the numerous injuries and exhaustion sustained by all death eaters against the relatively fresh Hogwarts students. They were relatively even for a few minutes before the death eaters gained the upper hand due to sheer experience.

Harry intervened now because he had little choice. He transfigured some smoke from a blasting curse into flying daggers and sent them at the group. They all ducked and blocked it, but it gave the others an opening to rain down some more spells on them.

As soon as the death eaters returned fire, Harry cast another spell 'obvallio' which erected a wall in front of them and blocked the spells. He calmly waited for the death eaters to batter down his wall, and then silently casted obruo which caused everything in the vicinity to attack the targeted death eater. Rookwood was able to dodge and block the incoming pieces of debris from the wall but didn't expect the daggers from before to make a reappearance. Rookwood had figured it was a simple banishing charm and died with several knives in his back, wondering how it happened.

The other death eaters could have saved him but defending each other wasn't high on their list of priorities. They focused more on casting more offensive magic. So they took note and just continued on.

Harry was thinking on how to take out the other death eaters. He couldn't overwhelm them with powerful spells, not right now. So he had to be a bit more clever. He wanted to focus more on defence to save his friends. So he had to be versatile so he casted saleo which caused a geyser to erupt in the middle of the room. The spraying water worked well in blocking the curses from the death eaters especially when he transfigured some into ice to serve as better shields. He then took the water in the air and transformed them into ice spears and rained death down upon them. Most of the death eaters dodged it with ease, one though got clipped by a spell from one of his friends. Rabastan Lestrange was more focused on dodging the ice spears than a spell that would make him dance uncontrollably. But because he got hit. He couldn't dodge the spears anymore and got impaled on them.

" And then there were only four " said Harry gleefully

" We can't hold back on Potter anymore. Or we'll all die! just kill him and well take the prophecy from his corpse" yelled Mulciber

" We have to follow the Dark lords orders. We can't kill him." argued Malfoy

" that little shit, killed my brother! I'll kill him and suffer the consequences later" countered Rudolphus Lestrange

Bella was undecided, on the one hand holding back was definitely foolish because most of their number was already taken out. But she still wanted to follow the Dark lord's orders to the letter because she needed to keep up the act. She had to have a quiet moment to confer with Malfoy that they were all that was left besides Nott.

She inched closer to Malfoy and whispered to him " Malfoy except for that idiot Nott were all that's left. Dolohov and Mcnair are dead, Crabbe is poisoned and so am I. furthermore Jugson and Avery got de-boned. The only ones who can fight are right here. " informed Bellatrix

This seriously worried Malfoy, they came in with twice their numbers and experience and they were actually outnumbered and wounded right now. Only four of them were left and each of them wasn't in a fit condition to fight. Malfoy too tired to fire a spell, Bellatrix poisoned and Lestrange too enraged and Mulciber losing his courage not to mention hurt.

Malfoy wasn't sure whether he wanted to retreat or not if he did. Then he could try again later but his cover would be blown and would have to lie low. Also the Dark lord would punish him severely for this catastrophic operation. They would be lucky to get all of their wounded members out, but take in the dead ones and it was a humiliating defeat regardless. Three dead to a bunch of kids and the rest defeated.

Malfoy was saved from the decision for now as Harry casted another spell that created a large cloud of smoke and yelled to go through a door to his friends.

Malfoy dispelled the smoke and tried to follow but the room was already spinning they had lost them and didn't see in which room they went. Not that they could find the right door but they would at least know where to look if they could see. Malfoy was worried it might have been the atrium.

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Harry was unlucky yet again, instead of the atrium it was the time chamber.

Harry called a stop to his group." Okay everyone lets take a break we have defeated most of the death eaters anyways."

" what are you talking about they are still after us"

"if you would have kept count dear brother of mine. You would know there were twelve to start with and that I defeated six of them and overheard Malfoy and Bella talking that the other two were incapacitated by my traps, and the final four are wounded and exhausted. Which means even if we run into them again we can take them on as long as we can get a little bit of rest. " explained Harry exasperatedly

"We could have defeated them in that chamber right there, you coward! You just wanna run all over the place rather than stand and fight." His brother accused

" you idiot, they outnumber us and have more experience than us. So by definition we were on the defensive and so a in depth defence is the best option. This was about survival not destroying the enemy and thanks to my so called cowardly tactics. They are on their last legs while you are unhurt except for Neville who got clipped with a cutting curse. "

" huh Neville got hurt , hey Nev how bad is it." asked daniel in concern after only now realizing.

Neville said "Not to bad I think, it wont cause me to bleed out but its my wand arm. So with this shoulder I won't be able to raise my wand."

" Which makes Nev a sitting duck and so I decided to retreat and fix him up before re engaging them. Use your head idiot, nothing in battle is certain. We may have whittled them down but they are seriously pissed off and can still hurt us."

" go set up some security wards or something then" suggested daniel

" I'm not wasting my strength on wards when we're not staying here long anyway"

"then maybe we can do it "suggested Hermione helpfully

"sure go ahead" agreed Harry, happy at least one of them was somewhat reliable.

" Ah Harry how do we do that " asked one of his friends. Harry was getting seriously annoyed

Luckily Hermione stepped up "" leave that to me Harry, you just focus on Neville" she then started whispering instructions to the rest.

Harry cast several healing spells because it was a Dark cutting curse that hit Neville. It made it difficult to purge the harmful effects from Neville's body. " Okay Neville, I cant do anymore than that here without exhausting myself. So I'll leave it at that, you'll be able to move it but it will hurt and be sluggish." Harry explained " So avoid any one on one duels because you will lose those, focus on support. " Harry ordered.

" Okay Harry, I don't think I'll need to do that anyhow with us outnumbering them. But I still want a crack at Bellatrix." said Neville confidently

"Neville even now when she is poisoned you couldn't take her with all of you working together. Even if I fought her right now it would be a stalemate at best because we're both exhausted.''

"Alright Harry but next time we get her promise" asked Neville forcefully

Harry shot him down" no promises Neville, just get some rest and we'll deal with it as it comes"

Neville looked a bit dejected at that. But Harry couldn't blame him, he had a good chance on getting those who tortured his parents into insanity and the one who could help him wasn't offering.

Harry looked around the room. Even though he was on a rescue mission that didn't mean he couldn't pick up some nice souvenirs on the way. A time turner or two in his pocket and a blasting curse in the room and no one would be able to tell that the time turners got stolen. They'd think they'd just got destroyed in the battle. Too bad he had witnesses here and he couldn't be caught with them in case the aurors showed up and questioned them.

Speaking of aurors where were the bloody buggers. This battle must have lasted at least half an hour to an hour. The aurors should have been pouring in by now. This meant they had disabled the alarm ward. They were on their own but were doing fine so far so it didn't really matter.

"Come on lets go into another room with less priceless artefacts." proposed Harry

" what about the wards you had me set up" asked Hermione a bit peeved that she did it for nothing

" they'll be a good diversion, if the death eater focus on getting past those undetected it'll slow them down. If not we'll get a nice alert on their position"

Mildly satisfied with that answer Hermione nodded and followed. Though the priceless artifact argument already had her convinced, they should leave. It was nice to know her work wasn't in vain.

They entered the chamber with the weird veil thing in the middle and took to hiding in the Dark corners.

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Meanwhile the order of the phoenix arrived at the department of mysteries. They entered the spinning room and were shocked to see Rabastan Lestrange and Rookwood dead.

" What,….. happened here" asked Tonks surprised

"' Looks like those kids put up more of a fight then we imagined they would" deducedd moody

They chose a door and all went through it. As much as they wanted to help the kids, they didn't want to run into a group of death eaters and get outnumbered.

They quickly checked the rooms and found even more disturbing facts. They found Dolohov and Mcnair's mangled bodies and Crabbe who looked like he was about to die any second.

"Hey kingsley, do you know what's wrong with him" asked Tonks

Kingsley took a closer look and said" He's been poisoned. If he doesn't get to a healer soon, he'll likely die."

" Who cares about him, let's keep moving. We have to find Daniel, this scum can drop dead for all I care"' said Sirius

"Sirius has a point, lets go!" said Alastor Moody

They passed through a chamber that looked like it was ravaged by a great fire because all the walls and floors were blackened even the ceiling didn't escape.

"Wonder what happened here"" said Lupin

" It seems the fight has been going on for a while. Though I'm not sure who won yet, it is clear that they both fought fiercely. Keep your guard up CONSTANT VIGILANCE they are still lurking about. " yelled Moody

They went on and stumbled across Nott.

"We got a death eater here, stun him" commanded Moody

Nott fought back but seemed to behave oddly, rather than fighting back as hard as he could or run away because he was outnumbered. he stood his ground and didn't dodge much. The others were getting closer when Kingsley yelled "Stop moving, get back"

Sirius didn't listen and moved forward eager to finish off the lone death eater and got suddenly blown back without a spell hitting him. Nott took advantage and fired a entrails expelling curse at him only to be blocked by Lupin's shield.

"' You alright cousin" asked Tonks worriedly while she kept up a steady stream of covering fire.

"Just peachy "' replied Sirius

"What happened Kingsley "' asked Tonks

"Look at the ground, that's an age line. If we move any closer to it we would be repelled and easy targets for Nott over there." Said kingsley

" hmm" mused Moody he was casting a diagnostic spell on it and said" It looks like anyone over twenty gets repelled and somehow Nott here got trapped inside of it.

Sirius and Tonks couldn't resist laughing at the death eater.

" how the hell did you get trapped in this"'

Nott didn't respond he just fired some more spells at them.

"Let's leave him be if he hasn't broken out yet, it means he doesn't know how. So let's leave him till later and go around." Said kingsley

They back tracked to the spinning room and choose another room.

" So far we have found plenty of dead and trapped death eaters but no kids. Maybe they won and got away or did they get beaten and taken away. " Lupin wondered

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Harry meanwhile was luxuriating on a nice stone slab. It was really comfortable if you ignored the cold hard surface.

" Harry shouldn't we keep moving and find an exit" asked a nervous Hermione who kept glancing at the exit.

" no not really, they might guard the spinning room now, so why run right into them"

"' I guess you have a point"

" I'm just gonna wait till they come through that door or I am well rested again." Shrugged Harry

Harry was also thinking it was finally time to put those rituals to use to strengthen him. He had been putting it off so he could play quidditch fairly. Because rituals to enhance one's strength were severely banned by the quidditch league. It was more or less the magical equivalent of doping, harmful to the body and increased performance. Harry however had painstakingly designed his rituals to avoid physical deformities and death. Only excruciating pain, he couldn't avoid that and it was acceptable in his book.

As he was deciding on when and how to perform the rituals, the doors flew open and the four death eaters left walked in.

" I see you found us again Malfoy and you look less winded than last time. " said Harry kindly

" You are not getting away from us so easily potter, now hand over the prophecy." Sneered Malfoy

" Sure why not, here you go" Harry rolled the prophecy over to them

The death eaters quickly moved towards it and Harry whispered" Syrticus '' which turned the ground into quicksand and swallowed the prophecy, Lestrange and Malfoy. Harry then yelled accio prophecy and it came flying back towards him. Bella meanwhile was busy fighting Neville and the rest of his friends. Mulciber too was fighting but was looking uncomfortable being there.

Malfoy and Lestrange had trouble getting out of the quicksand but could still fire off some spells.

The fight continued for a while with Harry focusing on defence again by conjuring his bubbles again over the quicksand to neutralize Lestrange and Malfoy for the moment because they used their shields to much to get another clean shot in.

Then the order of the phoenix joined the battle. They immediately joined the duel with Bellatrix and Mulciber. Both Mulciber and Bellatrix didn't like these odds because they were now heavily outnumbered. Bellatrix may be loyal but she wasn't a foolish Gryffindor and said " Malfoy lets retreat "'

" Agreed" said Malfoy grudgingly

Bellestrix quickly summoned her husband and Malfoy from the quicksand and retreated. Mulciber made to follow but was stunned by the order of the phoenix.

"Don't let them get away "' yelled moody

Kingsley, Tonks and Moody all followed the death eaters while Sirius and Lupin hanged back to check on the kids.

" are you guys alright?" asked Sirius

" we're fine no one got hurt except Neville and we patched him up. Don't mind us feel free to chase them if you want those are the last ones anyhow. " said Harry quickly

" right we'll be back shortly" said Lupin

" Okay see you later" said Harry

The order of the phoenix chased the final three into the atrium and there they were joined by Dumbledore who had just arrived.

" Give up now you cannot escape." Said Dumbledore calmly as he quickly tried to capture them. He trapped and bound all of them except Bellatrix who was remaining elusive. She ducked and weaved between his spells moving utterly unpredictably and firing of lethal spells with careless abandon.

Now that she no longer had to hold back to keep Potter alive. She could show her full skill. She may be poisoned and tired but she was still to be feared. But she knew she couldn't best Dumbledore and so was already looking to escape. But then the tide turned as Voldemort arrived and levelled the playing field so to speak.

" Dumbledore and his pet birds are here i see." observed Voldemort he then turned to his most loyal lieutenant " Bellatrix how did it go with Potter and the prophecy"

Bellatrix was scared to answer this because it would mean torture but failure to answer swiftly only meant more torture so she said. " We failed my lord, Potter still has the prophecy and defeated most of us and killed four of us. Maybe five if Crabbe doesn't get to a healer soon"

Voldemort saw red " What happened! How could you lose to some pathetic brats"

Bellatrix gulped but answered " The Potter brat is skilled with conjuration and animation and ancient spells. He created animated armies and traps on the fly and duelled us with lethal spells. While we had to hold back because you wanted him alive."

Voldemort seethed at this news especially at seeing Dumbledore blasted twinkling eyes. He asked " What happened to the rest, give me a detailed explanation" he was hoping for some good news maybe they escaped. He would crucio them for their cowardice but at least he wouldn't lose them as followers.

" Nott is trapped inside age lines , Dolohov and Mcnair are burn to a crisp. Jugson and Avery are boneless and Rookwood and Rabastan are dead as well like I said. Also I'm poisoned and Malfoy is magically exhausted from casting fiendfyre and the rest are wounded. " summed up Bellatrix

" I see " said Voldemort though truthfully he didn't. He really didn't see how his most trusted followers could be beaten so thoroughly. At least he hoped most were taken down by the order, that would soften the blow at least a bit to his ego. He asked dreading the answer " how many were taken out by the order"

Bellatrix fearfully replied " only one my lord. Mulciber was hit in the back as we tried to flee. When potter was joined by the order. Potter and us were both dead tired, but the order was fresh and outnumbered us. So we were forced to retreat my lord"

" hmm" at least that made good tactical sense, although embarrassing he could accept that reasoning, but the shame it implied was hard to swallow. Grown adults bested by kids it was infuriating.

Voldemort quickly freed his death eaters and said "get out of here, I'll deal with Dumbledore and his birds" he wasn't going to win against Dumbledore with his order beside him but his death eaters were already beaten and he really just needed to stall for some time so they could get away. He was too shorthanded as it was. This catastrophe set him back immensely, he could rescue his followers from Azkaban if absolutely necessary. But he couldn't resurrect them.

Hmm that was something to think about, maybe he should force all inner circle death eaters to create a horcrux. It would weaken the protection on his horcruxes. because not knowing about something was the strongest defence. But that also lead to his exile in his spirit form for a decade in the first place, because no death eater knew how to revive him. Or even that he could be revived other than some boasts he made that only Bella really believed at the time. A good old Bella she would definitely make a horcrux , at the mere suggestion of being immortal with him forever.

He duelled with Dumbledore for a while with the order helping him. Voldemort was hard pressed fighting them both. The order more or less let them fight a one on one duel but couldn't resist firing a few sniper shots every now and then, to decide it for Dumbledore.

Despite the taunting he gave the bloody birds, they neither fully committed nor withdrew. They just hanged back being annoying and distracting. It was a decent strategy because he would kill them with ease if they got close enough and Dumbledore couldn't cover their more risky actions.

He duelled with Dumbledore some more until he heard someone loudly exclaiming from behind, it was the minister of magic. He cursed under his breath, his plan to fly under the radar and gather his forces again was shot by Potter and his own carelessness, not to mention his death eaters incompetence. He disapperated back to Riddle manor after giving some parting words " This isn't over Dumbledore""

Arriving back in Riddle manor, he looked at his death eaters and said " Go get some healing potions and then explain this mess from the beginning."

Every death eater understood this as 'make sure your in tip top condition so I can torture you to within a inch of your lives without worrying you might accidentally die due to previous injuries'.

They all agreed a short sharp pain was better than the constant agonizing ache in Azkaban. But their lord had a knack for making them believe otherwise, if only for a short while.

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for clarification i'll outline the rest of the fic a bit

harry was born as the youngest son because he was born last as the seventh month dies. the healer was a bit sloppy with noting the time of birth and it got registered into the eight month. because of this daniel stands to inherit everything and lords it over harry. they were raised separately because the wizarding world wanted to see their saviour and overruled dumbledore while harry still got sent to the dursleys due to lack of interest and dumbledore's prior machinations. harry found out about the wizarding world at eleven but was filled with anger and jealousy once he learned about his twin brother. this drove him to excel to prove himself better than his beloved brother.

dumbledore had good reason to assume daniel rather than harry because the curse scar was on daniel not harry. the soul fragment attached itself to a nearby vessel and that happened to be daniel though harry rebounded the killing curse. so he doesnt have parsel tongue abilties or a scar that forces people to hyphenate his name. this was based on the fact that the killing curse leaves behind no mark or scar meaning it shouldnt have caused it. the reasoning that the killing curse caused it because it was a violent one by dumbledore is just light versus dark propaganda.

because they look alike and its a rather traumatic experience for him, voldemort doesnt realize it is harry either and labors under the assumption it is daniel until much later in the fic. this disinterest by the major puppet masters gives harry free reign to explore walks of life that would have been denied him if he was special. like strolling through knockturn alley and learning their side of the story. he basically learns they are the ghetto's of the wizarding world and not necessarily evil just poor.

harry also experiences some corruption in the form of aurors running a protection racket on the denizens. because of their low social status they cant raise much of a fuss meaning they can close bussinesses on trumped up charges or throw them in jail, to avoid this they have to pay money to the aurors. this causes dissent and resentment against the pro muggleborn regime of fudge. at least they think it is pro muggleborn because of manipulations of the daily prophet and lucius malfoy. this creates many silent sympathizers with the death eaters just as lucius planned. harry finds out about it and tries to stop it but gets thwarted by both dumbledore, the ministry and naturally lucius.

the idea was abandoned because the fic had no viable OC's to interact with harry and no clear ideas for plots within the ministry. this is just an excerpt i wrote for fun on the premise assuming it went somewhere. so it may seem like its a overpowered gary stu. there was supposed to be at least 50 k words infront of this or preferably 100 k before i got to this point to explain all the skills.

not sure if a knockturn alley pov has been written before but if so please recommend them to me because i would love to read them.

ps i dont own harry potter


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